Listen to Simon Girard's interview on the show "C'est jamais pareil" (ICI Première) [in french]
The population file BALSAC is collaborating in the Initiative GenoRef-Q, a project that will sequence the genome of more than 2,000 people, recruited from the 30,000 participants in the CARTaGENE population cohort.
Indeed, Genome Quebec, in partnership with Genome Canada, announces a grant of more than $3 million to two Scientific Directors of CARTaGENE, Guillaume Lettre, Ph.D. and Simon Gravel, Ph.D., for the implementation of the GenoRef-Q Initiative. This project will sequence the genome of more than 2,000 participants, a unique and promising initiative for Quebec.
This initiative will be carried out in collaboration with the BALSAC population file, which is a unique tool at the junction of the humanities and biomedical sciences. The BALSAC population file is built from Quebec's civil status records, allowing the automatic reconstitution of families and genealogical lineages over four centuries. BALSAC, which has been in development for 50 years at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, now covers all regions of Quebec from the beginning of European settlement in the 17th century to the present day. The ability to follow the individual journeys as well as the family and genealogical history of an entire population opens the way to research that highlights the characteristics of Quebec's population in terms of founding effect, growth, diversity and regional structures. According to Hélène Vézina, director of the BALSAC project and professor at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, "the synergy between the GenoRef-Q initiative and BALSAC will not only enhance the project by adding a socio-historical dimension, but will also reaffirm the relevance of the BALSAC project at the dawn of its 50 years of existence.
– Original text : UQACtualité